These days, the battle for the Indian Ocean seems to be all about the dread pirates of Somalia. On Wednesday, the U.S. briefly became a direct player in the ongoing drama, with news that those pirates had hijacked a U.S.-flagged cargo ship, the Maersk Alabama, and taken 20 American citizens prisoner. But the crew regained control of the ship, except for the captain, who remains on a lifeboat in the hands of the pirates. But a drama ...

Shocked but not surprised. That might be the best way to sum up India's reaction to the revelation this week that a black market organ transplant ring had been harvesting kidneys from poor Indian laborers, sometimes against their wishes, and using them in foreigners desperate for transplants. Police who busted the ring last week say doctors paid as little as $1000 for the kidneys and then sold them for as much as $37,500. The racket, based ...

The ashes of Jawaharlal Nehru have long since disappeared into the silt of the Ganges, carrying with them the faint shadow of the rose he always wore in his lapel. Gone with the Pandit is the image of India as a moral bulwark of the "nonaligned" world, a pious mediator between the great powers. Gone with the jaunty jodhpurs and preachy pronouncements is the hope that India might soon be an economic success. Gone, too, are the pride and ...

When India finally let its hair down after the financial liberalization of the '90s, local chefs had to radically reconsider their chutneys. Palates became younger, adventurous and erudite. The first bloke to do Indian nouvelle really well was Rahul Akerkar at Mumbai's now iconic Indigo, foodindigo.com. Then Vineet Bhatia flew back from England, two Michelin stars in his carry-on, and set up Ziya at the local Oberoi, oberoihotels.com. But Aurus , based in north Mumbai's chicster enclave ...

The disembodied voice was chilling in its rage. A gunman, holed up in the Oberoi Trident hotel in Mumbai , where some 40 people had been taken hostage, told an Indian news channel that the attacks were revenge for the persecution of Muslims in India. "We love this as our country, but when our mothers and sisters were being killed, where was everybody?" he asked via telephone. No answer came. But then he probably wasn't expecting one. ...

You may have been concentrating on the ice dancing in Vancouver. Or you're one of those people who can't tell a silly mid-off from a backward square-leg. So it's possible you missed the breaking of one of sport's long-standing barriers: India's Sachin Tendulkar scored a double-hundred against South Africa in a one-day match on Feb. 24, 2010. For the 1.5 billion people who follow cricket — making it, by some reckoning, the world's second most popular sport ...

The American dream for me, growing up in India in the 1970s, looked something like the opening credits of Dallas. The blockbuster TV series began with a kaleidoscope of big, brassy, sexy images — tracts of open land, shiny skyscrapers, fancy cars, cowboy businessmen and the very dreamy Victoria Principal. We watched bootlegged copies of the show, passed around on old Betamax cassettes. America seemed dazzling and larger than life, especially set against the stagnant backdrop ...

When Starbucks coffee rolls out its new logo in stores in early March, you might notice something missing from your coffee cup: the words Starbucks Coffee. The company says removing its angular text from the logo allows for more flexibility overall. And Vikas Mittal, a Rice University professor who studies logo redesigns and brand commitment, believes it will have an added benefit as Starbucks begins to expand in Asia. In a paper to be published in the Journal of Consumer ...

The pomp and ceremony with which President Barack Obama will host India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at a White House state dinner on Tuesday won't alter a perception in India that it has lost ground to China in the new Administration's Asia policy. Many in New Delhi saw President Obama's performance last week in Beijing as acquiescent toward an emboldened Beijing, New Delhi's longtime regional rival. And they see India having a diminished role in the economic and ...

Most Indian mothers want their daughters to marry decent men who make a good living. Now, in parts of rural India, women have a new -- and rather unusual -- demand for matrimony: a toilet.